| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: had ceased to feel the spur to glory; he had, in a way, had an
abstract enjoyment of fame; and having opened it, as the ancient
priests of sacrifice sought to read the future in the hearts of men,
he had found nothing in the entrails of his chimera. Scorning a
sentiment so wholly personal: "Glory," said he, "is but beatified
egoism."
Here, perhaps, before taking leave of this exceptional boyhood, I may
pronounce judgment on it by a rapid glance.
A short time before our separation, Lambert said to me:
"Apart from the general laws which I have formulated--and this,
perhaps, will be my glory--laws which must be those of the human
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: TIME SELDOM HUNG heavily upon Tarzan's hands. Even where
there is sameness there cannot be monotony if most of
the sameness consists in dodging death first in one form
and then in another; or in inflicting death upon others.
There is a spice to such an existence; but even this Tarzan
of the Apes varied in activities of his own invention.
He was full grown now, with the grace of a Greek god
and the thews of a bull, and, by all the tenets of apedom,
should have been sullen, morose, and brooding; but he
was not. His spirits seemed not to age at all--he was
still a playful child, much to the discomfiture of his
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: she leaned back in her arm-chair, just in such a twilight as
this, and thought of the high-mettled men whose sense of duty
called them to arms against his grandfather; and how, in a cause
which they deemed that of their rightful prince and country,
'They fought till their hand to the broadsword was glued,
They fought against fortune with hearts unsubdued.'
Do not come at such a moment, when my head is full of plaids,
pibrochs, and claymores, and ask my reason to admit what, I am
afraid, it cannot deny--I mean, that the public advantage
peremptorily demanded that these things should cease to exist. I
cannot, indeed, refuse to allow the justice of your reasoning;
|
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: knocking you on the head out there in the dark in that other room;
and so, as I say, we weren't overlooking any bets on account of the
little trouble it took to plant that table and the money. We tried
to think of everything!" Danglar paused for a moment to mock the
Adventurer with narrowed eyes. "That's the story; here's the end.
I hoped I'd get you both together, you and the White Moll. I didn't.
But I've got you. I didn't get you both - and that's what gives you
a chance for your life, because she's worth more to us than you are.
If you'd been together, you would have gone out-together. As it is,
I'll see that you don't do any more harm anyway, but you get one
chance. Where is she? If you answer that, you will, of course,
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